Jessica Massabrook

jessica massabrook

Share This Story

Jessica Massabrook

Class Of:

2012

Major:

Graphic Design

I had the good fortune to be offered a job from Princeton University Press soon after I graduated. The summer before I had a really great internship at the press where I was able to design the back covers of paperbacks as well as design a logo and book that was all my own. The work I did with them previously had impressed them enough to bring me onto the design team as a junior designer the next summer. The position of junior designer meant that a majority of my work consisted of designing covers and the interiors of the books that the press publishes.

Recently, I was promoted to the position of designer and studio coordinator. As it suggests, my work is now partially design work and partially administrative. As a designer I will still be working on book covers and interiors, but I will also be taking on larger design projects from other departments that don’t quite fit into either of those categories—whether it be a motion graphic, info graphic, or an app design. The studio coordinator portion of my job title means that I work with our staff of freelancers, some of whom are independent designers while others work for a design studio, to make sure deadlines are met, to get approvals for their designs in house, as well as send them corrections on the work they complete for the press.

It’s hard to get prospective students to understand how genuinely I believe Moore was the best choice I could have made. When I was applying for the college I knew one person who went to Moore and my high school art teacher highly recommended it, however my cons list consisted of one thing that seemed to negate all of that: it was all women. A friend of mine at Moore always explained that she went to Moore in spite of the fact that it was all women. And I think that explains it very well for me as well. The single sex school was never going to be in my pro list, but I didn’t allow it to take Moore out as an option either. I would encourage you to go on campus tours and talk to others attending the college. One of the best things for me was the quality of the student leadership programs, something I had no idea of when I decided to go to the school. It was those programs, even more than my studio and liberal arts classes, that made me into the person I am today. And I couldn’t ask for anything more from them.